flock
tson denotes a collective body of sheep or small livestock, whether tended, owned, offered, or used as an image for scattered people.
The term most often identifies a collectively regarded flock under pasture, care, ownership, or transfer as property. The same collective is named in regulations and narratives involving sacrifice or offerings, while two visions compare dispersed Israel to a flock lacking a shepherd.
Senses in use
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A tended, owned, or acquired animal flock · dominant
The singular noun occurs for a group of animals being pastured, guarded, sheared, or administered: in 1 Samuel 16:11 the APB renders the youngest son as “pasturing the flock,” and in 1 Chronicles 27:31 it renders Jaziz as being “in charge of the flock.” Construct forms mark such possessive relationships in 1 Samuel 17:15 (“his father's flock”) and 1 Chronicles 4:39 (“their flock”), while 1 Samuel 27:9 places the group among livestock taken in an attack.
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Flock animals in sacrificial and offering contexts · common
The same singular collective appears among animals sacrificed, consecrated, or supplied from possessions. In 1 Kings 8:5 the APB renders the gathered worshipers as “sacrificing flock and cattle,” while Deuteronomy 12:21 speaks of sacrificing from one's cattle or flock; 1 Samuel 15:15 places the spared animals in a stated purpose “to sacrifice to the LORD.”
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A flock-image for dispersed Israel · rare
In 1 Kings 22:17 the singular noun is used in Micaiah's vision of Israel scattered on the mountains “like a flock that has no shepherd.” 2 Chronicles 18:16 repeats the same image, followed by the statement that the people have no lords and should return home.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB commonly presents the collective with “flock” or “flocks,” and in animal lists it often uses “sheep”; it also renders the comparison in 1 Kings 22:17 as “a flock that has no shepherd.” These English choices show the verse-level presentation rather than a fixed one-to-one rendering.